So, let's discuss. Do you think that this is likely to be a change that we'll see in the future, and if so, what are your thoughts on it?
So my first thought is a big one:
WotC finally managed to get artists to follow a consistent direction re: Drow skin colour and appearance!?!?!?!?!?
For real?!?!?!?
That's what's truly astonishing here. That's what's mind-blowing. For like, 20 years, WotC have been trying to tell artists to draw Drow in various ways, and artists have not been listening. Some even had a quote from a WotC dude complaining about it (I can't find it but it was in a thread on the drow/orc/etc. changes a few months back). Apparently they somehow finally fixed that?
My second thought is, is this the most heroic Drow we've ever seen in one product? And they're in fairly diverse roles too, not just the usual Drow ones.
Third off, I think it's a smart change. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we can all waffle about "WELL MAKING THEM NOT ALL EVIL IS JOB #1!!!", but like, duh, obviously, whatever. This is something semi-independent of that. This is a smart change for two reasons. Firstly, it makes them hella easier to draw, and easier to draw consistently. We'd previously seen artists using dark grey, purple, or in ye olde dayes, dark human skin tones to try and get around the fact that it's bloody hard to draw someone who is obsidian-coloured, especially if you don't want to look like a comic book. Plus, frankly, whilst I'd have gone for a different grey, it looks good. Secondly, it gives them more room to manuever on Drow, and helps signal that they're changing things here more broadly.
How long before they appropriate the
Shadow Elves, from Mystara, I wonder?
Sooner rather than later, I hope. Shadow Elves rocked.